


the guts to try

by fixandforget



Category: Toki o Kakeru Shoujo | The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Friendship, One Shot, Pre-Movie, Temporary Character Death, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-29 04:12:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11432913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fixandforget/pseuds/fixandforget
Summary: When you travel back in time, you become the only one to remember what happens in the future. Makoto would never realize she had crashed into the train--and died--more than once. The only one who remembers it is Chiaki, but he never speaks of it again (nor does he want to).





	the guts to try

 

 

 

> "I wonder. He said he would definitely return one day. Though I didn't plan on waiting for him. And so much time has passed. It didn't last long. A blink of an eye. But, Makoto... You're not like me, right? If someone were late to meet you... Wouldn't you run out to meet him?"

-Kazuko Yoshiyama, _The Girl Who Leapt Through Time_ (2006 Film)

* * *

 

It was somewhere in the spring of 8th grade that Chiaki had started disliking trains. Maybe he might’ve even hated bikes, if he wasn’t so interested in them. Of course, one might think his sudden opinion of trains isn’t justified--but it was his opinion, and besides--

He had a perfectly good reason for hating trains.

It was somewhere in the spring of 8th grade that a student named Makoto Kanno had been hit by a train. _Her bike hit the railroad crossing, and she went flying in front of the train,_ they said. _Must’ve been something with the brakes on that bike,_ they said. _Such a tragedy,_ they said.

Chiaki didn’t need anyone to tell him. He was there.

_Blood. Screaming. Disbelief. Frozen. Kousuke shaking him, but sounding nothing like his usual calm self. He still had around 70 jumps. He recalled what they told him:_

“Every jump is important, Chiaki, only use them in a case where you absolutely need to--” _But if this wasn’t an emergency, he didn’t know what was._

 _He would fix this. 70 jumps? 70 was a big number. Surely, he wouldn’t get in any trouble by using just one._ “You need to learn that some things are just meant to occur--” _Fuck that._

 _“Ch-Chiaki? What the hell are you doing?”_ _Ignoring his friend, he ran--and almost instinctively, he leapt. And so the spring of 8th grade passed by peacefully._

Needless to say, Makoto spent the next few weeks testing his “psychic powers” that somehow knew the brake on her bike was broken. Kousuke only shook his head, believing a more logical explanation: Chiaki had simply stolen her bike before. After all, there was only one person in the entire school who used their own name as the lock code, and they both knew who it was.

Still, the thought scared him. Some things were just meant to occur? No matter what? If someone from the future were to stop that thing from occurring, would it be okay? It wouldn’t happen again, right?

He spent the remainder of 8th grade and half of 9th grade always at least two or three strides away from her, making sure time had no other method of killing her. Of course, he eventually stopped when she began violently protesting due to the rumors that started as a result of his actions. To be honest, he wouldn’t mind if those rumors continued.

As time went on, he eventually reverted to spending most of his time outside of school in the museum, waiting to see the painting he had went back in time for. It became obvious that there would probably be no more train accidents in the town, and Makoto would start believing he was a stalker if he kept popping up near her randomly, anyway.

Chiaki loved his life in the past. Yes, it started out rough when he was bullied for his accent, his funny-colored hair, and his complete inability to do anything teenagers did before his time, but that all changed when he met Makoto and Kousuke. They taught him about a great game called baseball, even if they were pretty much only playing catch.

And they all became the best of friends.

* * *

 

 “ _Raaaaahhhh,_ ” Chiaki cowered in the sun, “how long is Makoto going to make us wait here for? There’s barely any shade! I’m dying, Kousuke!” he said, shaking the taller boy. “I’m dying!”

“We’ve only been out here for a few minutes.” Kousuke dismissed his theatrics and looked toward the glass window of the school. “Knowing her, she probably forgot she had cleaning duty until it was too late. For all we know, she’s left without us.”

“Nah, I saw her as I left earlier,” he replied, releasing Kousuke to stretch his arms. “She was busy talking with her friend--Hayakawa- _san_ , I think.” Chiaki sighed. “We’re going to be waiting forever at this point! Girls… When they start talking with each other, they never stop.”

“I know. Sort of like you, huh?”

“You--”

“Hey!” They both turned to see Makoto waving from the front doors of the school. She frowned, a thought coming to her. “Oh, were you waiting out in this desert the entire time?”

Chiaki only responded with a glare.

* * *

 

 Not a single apology came from her on the way to the field. Throwing a baseball to each other, they spoke about what they would do in the future; Kousuke was sure on studying hard for a medical profession, and Makoto thought aloud the first occupations that came to mind.

“What about you, Chiaki? What’re you going to do?” She watched as he tried to pinpoint where the baseball Kousuke had thrown high into the sky would land.

“Me? I’ll…” Chiaki had nothing to say. He was _from_ the future, but that meant he wasn’t going to have a future in the past. Luckily, he still had one time-traveling device left.

Chiaki frowned to himself. He was down to only two time-leaps. If he was to crush the walnut now, he would lose those two time-leaps, and every time-leap was crucial. Losing time-leaps meant losing time to wait for the painting to finish.

But what would happen after he saw the painting? He came to see the work of art--done beautifully, despite the war and famine that had been going around--to spark some sort of hope within him about his own era. Nuclear wars had wiped out almost all of humanity, and the invention of miniature, temporary time machines was the only good that emerged.

Now, he felt as if his own hope revolved around his friendship with a certain two teenagers his own age. Once he saw the painting, he would have to leave them to go back to his own time--same goes for if he uses up his second-to-last time-leap. What was he going to do? He didn’t want to leave his friends.

He didn’t want to leave Makoto. In fact, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be “just friends” with her--

Chiaki was unpleasantly snapped out of his thoughts by a baseball connecting to his face, soon accompanied with the echoes of Makoto’s laughs.

* * *

 

  “You’re going home?” He heard Kousuke’s voice directed at Makoto through the running of the water he was using to cool his throbbing face. Water. It would become a substance that was scarcely as clean as this in the future.

“Ah, no. I gotta run some errands for my mom!”

“Eh? Don’t be like that,” Chiaki said, looking up toward her. “You’re just going to leave me alone with this guy?” Kousuke gave him a look, clearly not amused.

“Bye!” was her only answer. “See you later!”

“Wha--Hey! Heey!” In contrast to his protests, he was grinning at her retreating back.

* * *

 

  “You’re no fun,” Chiaki managed flatly as they left the field a few minutes later. “With your annoying strength, anyone would be unlucky to play baseball with you. I’m done.”

“That’s not what you’ll be saying when Makoto joins us to play catch again tomorrow.”

“Only ‘cause she throws terribly! It evens out your inability to not throw the ball all the way into space.”

Kousuke scoffed; the fact that Chiaki’s face had turned slightly pink didn’t serve to support his argument. He opened his mouth to counter his insult, when Chiaki abruptly stopped.

“Huh? You okay?”

“Y-Yeah,” he answered, and they continued walking.

Obviously, no, he wasn’t. Chiaki swallowed, his mood of joking abandoning him. It was strange. Maybe it was only the wind, but it seemed a cold feeling had ran through him seconds before. Like… Like something bad had occurred.

Someone crashed into him.

* * *

 

Rubbing his head, Chiaki let out an exasperated breath. He had stubbed his toe in the morning, had a textbook fly straight into his temple in the afternoon, been hit directly in the face with a baseball thrown by his own friend, and now _this._ Usually, he would have much better luck--but today, today was an extremely unlucky day.

“ _Ow_! Damn it! Watch where you’re going, man!” Still, he helped the other boy up. He blinked. “What’re you in such a rush for?” The boy’s eyes widened.

“You didn’t hear?” his words tumbled out in a hectic manner. “There was an accident in the town--some girl hit the railroad crossings with her bike, and flew straight into the train’s path! It… The train hit her… I think she was from our high school!” It wasn’t long before he started running again.

Chiaki froze, and he stopped breathing. _Blood. Screaming. The spring of 8_ _th_ _grade._ He was barely aware of Kousuke shaking him, just like before.

“ _Oi_! Chiaki! Snap out of it!” His friend looked pale. “It probably wasn’t her. There’s never been a train accident here; I’m sure that the one time it happens it wasn’t Makoto. It could’ve even just been some miscommunication--no one could be hurt.”

_Just like before._

_Are you an idiot?_ A voice in his brain whispered angrily. _Are you_ trying _to run out of time-leaps? If this girl is meant to die, she’s going to die. Are you going to spend every one of your time-leaps on her? You’ll have to go back sooner than you want--you won’t see the painting. This accident has happened before, and it’s happened again for a reason. Some things are just meant to occur--_

“SHUT UP!” Without meaning to, he shoved Kousuke aside.

If her death was meant to occur, he would’ve never become friends with her, never had a chance to stop it. But he did, and that meant he could save her. Hell, maybe he was “meant to”, if what they said was correct.

Whether they were correct or not, Chiaki didn’t care.

“Chiaki? What the hell are you doing?”

He ran.

“I’m going to fix this.”

And he leapt.

* * *

 

  He nearly crashed, just like how he used to on his first tries of time-leaping. Chiaki twisted around, trying to find out where he had landed, and at what time. What if he didn’t go back far enough? What if--

_Why are there flasks and tubes all around me? Where am I?_

It soon became clear to him that he was in the backroom of the science classroom. He had been here before, to collect materials for a teacher as part of a punishment for pulling a prank on a female student during gym. He had no regrets because she had repeatedly insulted Makoto.

 _Makoto_.

“Okay,” he said to himself. “I just need to find her and make sure she goes nowhere near the train or her goddamn bike.”

His attempt to be a stealth ninja failed with his head hitting the table harshly, causing the sound of clinking glass to ring out above the table. Wincing from both the pain and sound caused, he slowly stood, only to bump into a shelf behind him. More sounds of clinking glass followed. Usually, he would be more graceful in these actions, but alas--

Today was not his luckiest day.

The door next to him creaked as it opened. Chiaki sucked in a strained breath, ducking the table, hoping for a chance to escape. Was it a teacher? If it was, he was screwed--time would be wasted with an interrogation of why someone like him was in the lab.

“Huh?” It was a girl’s voice, and she sounded familiar. “Ehh?” Through the darkness and cracks of light, he couldn’t make out the face of the wanderer. He had no time to connect voices to faces, anyway.

He tried to stand but feared he would slip or make a sound, with all the _wonderful_ luck he’s been having today. In his hesitance, Chiaki didn’t see a walnut-shaped object slip out from his pocket to roll under the table. He paused for a moment, and then clenched his teeth.

 _Fuck it,_ he thought.

Chiaki stood up fast, ignored the shocked yelp that soon followed from the stranger, and swiftly left the room, nearly slamming the door closed. With his hand still on the doorknob, he closed his eyes and sighed. _That was a close one._

“Chiaki- _kun_?” He turned to see Yuri Hayakawa. She had a broom in her hands. “What’re you doing here?” Inwardly, a truckload of curses ran through his mind, and he was proud to have managed a sheepish smile.

“A-Ah, Hayakawa- _san_ ,” Chiaki scratched the back of his head, “I kind of forgot something here during science, so…” It was a crappy story and definitely not one of his best excuses. “Um, do you know where Makoto went?”

“Oh… No, but if you find her, could you tell me? She’s supposed to be on cleaning du--” Yuki was cut off by the rush of the wind caused by him leaving the room. She blinked, frowned, and then sighed.

Going back to sweeping, she mumbled, “Makoto’s completely oblivious to his feelings…”

* * *

 

  “KOUSUKE!” Chiaki yelled, charging towards his friend. Kousuke casually took a step to the side, avoiding being crashed into.

“Yeah?” he said as Chiaki screeched to a stop.

“Where’s Makoto? She hasn’t left yet, has she?”

“Uh, no. She’s still inside.” Kousuke blinked, surprised.

“Oh.” Finally getting ahold of his breath, Chiaki fell back onto the floor into a sitting position. He was relieved--at least nothing had changed. Hopefully his encounter with whoever it was in the lab wouldn’t affect anything. “Let’s wait for her, then.”

Kousuke chuckled.

“We always do that.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Placing his hand in his pocket to make sure the time-walnut was still there, Chiaki watched the doors of the school. His face became blank as he realized nothing was in his pocket. “Huh?” He checked his second pocket. Nothing. Chiaki stood up and pat himself down.

Still nothing.

“Did you lose something?” Kousuke asked, watching him turn around to check his back pockets. The end result: Air. No time-walnut.

Chiaki swallowed. _Oh crap._

* * *

 

  Meanwhile, a girl with a short haircut awoke on the floors of the lab in a science classroom, opening her eyes to nearly ten books falling onto her face. A crunched walnut lay beside her elbow. She groaned.

 _Today has been an extremely unlucky day so far,_ Mokoto thought with a sigh.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thanks for reading. Leave a review if you're bored and have the time. Smiley-face.


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